Monday, September 14, 2015

Some of you know that John and Will went on a backpacking trip to the Sierra Nevadas a few weeks ago. It was, apparently, one of the hardest and most exhilarating experiences of their lives.

I can't provide much detail on exactly where any of this is and John and Will are both gone at the moment, but you can just admire the beautiful scenery.

The sun can be pretty intense, especially for a couple of pasty white boys.

God's amazing creation!

They came home with many stories, of both fun and pain. And at the very least, they could say they had done it, they had endured, and survived.

I, for one, am very thankful for the survival part! I tried not to, but couldn't help imagining all the things that could go wrong on a trip like this with precipitous heights and crumbling mountain faces. But the Lord kept them safe and brought them home!

As for whether or not they'll ever go again, Will says a definite, "No!" John knows that Micah will want to go in a year or two so he hasn't said absolutely not, but perhaps it's too soon to contemplate going again!

Sunday, September 13, 2015

I was thinking the other day about why my blog lies abandoned for such long periods of time. It certainly is not because we're not doing anything! I identified a couple of common reasons, though:

1. I am too lazy to download the pictures on my camera and who wants to hear about something fun we've done without a few pictures?

2. We're busy but we're not doing anything that is really "blog-worthy" - whatever that means.

3. At the end of a long day when I finally have a minute to sit down, the last thing I want to do is to craft an entertaining/amusing/thought-provoking/inspiring/whatever post. I use up a lot of words in a day and even I run out of words at some point! I don't need the pressure of that demanding little cursor blinking at me from the top of an empty page!

And so I don't write.

And then pretty soon I look and see that it has been four months since I last posted.

I know it's not like anything seriously depends on my writing my blog, but I like to think that it helps us to stay in touch with those we love, plus it lets me flex my writing muscles! And since I don't scrapbook anymore, this is a good place to keep track of the kids as they grow.

Grow up. And up. And up. And then leave me! Alone and desolate!

I may be having the mommy version of senioritis. My baby, my first baby, the most beautiful baby in the world (declared so by my grandmother and she would know), is a senior in high school!

Almost as hard to believe: Micah is in 10th, Johanna is in 8th, and Sam is in 4th.

***

I wrote all that several days ago. As so often happens, I start in on something and then get called away by one thing or another and there it sits, abandoned, waiting for my return!

Well, I'm going to post this before I get called away again!

The above picture is from the first day of school. Amazing how relaxed and even happy they were this time - so different from two years ago! Praise the Lord!